January 14, 2026
I zipped my jacket up tight against a chilly pre-dawn breeze as we zoomed across Caddo Lake last November. We’d hired guide Paul Keith to give us a sunset tour of the lake the evening before, and now we were back on his water-skimming Skeeter boat for a two-hour sunrise tour. The water, like mercury, mirrored violet-and-melon clouds and the bottle-trunked silhouettes of bald cypress.
One thing I’ve learned in my explorations over the years is always hire a guide if you can. They get you to places you’d never see otherwise.
The pre-dawn sky started moody…
…brightened to melon…
…and swiftly turned gold and violet.
Caddo Lake is said to be home to the largest bald cypress forest in the world. These uniquely adapted trees grow right out of the water.
Paul pointed out an osprey nest atop one tree — a twiggy roost as big as a kiddie pool.
Waterworld forest
As the sun rose, the rusty orange foliage came into focus.
A spray of fall color in an old cypress trunk — what seedling took root here?
A loud call alerted us that a northern flicker was nearby.
Hi there
The rising sun intensified the trees’ fall color.
A split-trunk tree offered a view straight through.
American coots on their own morning errand
Duck hunters were on the lake, and occasional blasts from concealed blinds made me nervous.
A cormorant greeting the dawn like the goddess Nike was drying its wings.
Note that little toe-grab.
You’re majestic, dahling.
Great egret stalking the shallows
Another split tree
Spanish moss festoons some trees, adding gothic beauty.
Egret fishing among water hyacinth
Off he goes
Birds of a feather…
I’m not sure what this bird is. Anyone have a guess?
Paul spotted the osprey before I did. See it in the top of the tree?
My zoom lens offered a closer look.
A dead cypress makes a swampy totem pole.
Reflections
Graceful trees with Spanish moss remind me of dancers shimmying in fringed dresses.
A silver veil
Paul motored us to Government Ditch, a much-photographed water alley lined with cypresses dripping with Spanish moss. The passage was dredged by the Army Corps of Engineers in the late 1800s to facilitate steamboat traffic for the cotton trade.
Spanish moss garland
One of the locals
Caddo Lake is truly picturesque in fall.
Up next: Part 3, canoeing on Caddo and seeing red-headed woodpeckers. For a look back at Part 1, a sunset boat tour on Caddo, click here.
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Digging Deeper
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